Editorial - Effort to snuff smoking bans the latest in a line of assaults on local control

Wednesday

May 15, 2013 at 10:43 PM

In Raleigh, we are seeing a General Assembly determined to strip local governments of local control.

The concept of home rule is one that Republicans claim to hold dear. People are best equipped to govern themselves at the local level. Yet in Raleigh we are seeing a General Assembly determined to strip local governments, especially some of our major cities, of local control.The latest shot in Raleigh’s war on local government is a bill that would negate outdoor smoking bans adopted – often at the public’s request – by many local governments and institutions. The bill also would nullify the will of Wrightsville Beach voters who used the democratic process to enact a smoking ban along the beach strand. The provision, Senate Bill 703, was scheduled to go to the State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday and would have to be pushed hard to make today’s crossover bill deadline. Also under way are efforts to restrict the ability of cities and counties ability to adopt environmental rules that go beyond often inadequate federal standards. Some measures come with a dollop of vindictiveness, such as the bill that will strip Asheville of its water system without compensation, sticking city taxpayers with the remaining debt on he system. (A judge this week issued a restraining order temporarily barring the transfer.) The city of Charlotte would lose control of its airport – one of the busiest in the nation – to an authority whose members do not have to include anyone with knowledge of airports or aviation. A similar coup in Asheville – apparently a favorite target of legislative overreach – took control of that city’s airport, and expensive problems have ensued.Republican Honorables have taken their first two-chamber majority since Reconstruction to mean that the voters want them to tear down the house and throw everything out, good public policy along with the cumbersome. Local governments, elected by local voters, that took it upon themselves to implement protections when state and federal rules wouldn’t are now being punished.Many smoking bans in public parks and on college campuses are driven by citizen petitions and enjoy strong public support. While sometimes difficult to enforce, they nevertheless manage to get good compliance when signs are posted and people understand the expectations.Sen. Buck Newton, a Wilson Republican and one of the bill’s sponsors, says it’s all about the right to enjoy a legal product in public. No matter that some studies link even outdoor secondhand smoke to ill effects on the health of others, especially those with respiratory conditions. Newton says people who are worried about the effect of secondhand smoke on their children should simply “move their children to another spot if this is really a problem.”More than 65 percent of Wrightsville Beach voters supported banning smoking on the strand, and state law long ago gave the town the power to control its own beach. This bill is a slap in the face to those voters, as well as to residents of more than 80 communities that ban smoking in certain outdoor venues.A provision requiring designated smoking areas – clearly marked, so people who don’t wish to pollute their lungs can steer clear – is a more reasonable solution than gutting existing smoking bans.On a broader scale, residents who desire more local control ought to pelt their state legislators with letters, emails and phone calls. Otherwise, they may find that they no longer have a say in what happens in their own backyard.